Republican Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays is seeking to counter misinformation and build confidence in the election process.
To that end, he spoke with voters at the Leesburg Public Library Tuesday evening.
But members of the Lake County Republican Executive Committee were there to challenge that message. Driven by concerns following the 2020 election, they have repeatedly made claims against the supervisor's office.
And several in their "election integrity" group were at Tuesday's League of Women Voters event.
They questioned vote-by-mail signature verification, claimed to have found irregularities and advocated for hand counting of ballots.
LCREC recording secretary June Lang of Eustis said after the meeting that they're just concerned moms and grandmas who started investigating and found discrepancies.
"We just started a little mission of finding answers to all these things," she said. "And just the hole kept getting deeper and deeper and deeper."
Hays -- who is running for re-election this year -- was clearly fed up with allegations he says have been addressed and disproved.
Afterward, he said, "[W]hen I walked in here, and I saw who was here, I knew that they were up to no good. And they are looking for every opportunity they can to spread their lies.
"Every one of those people has had an opportunity to hear the truth, but they refuse to accept the truth because it doesn't fit their narrative."
It's not just misinformation but "lies," he said. "And the cost is tragic, because it's the undermining of the confidence of the people in their voting system, when I know the integrity of that voting system is tight and secure."
Hays said Lake County residents with questions about the voting process should seek answers from his office and not the "garbage" on social media and other internet sites.
